MHD pressure drop measurement of PbLi flow in double-bended pipe

Highlights: • MHD pressure drops of PbLi flow in a double-bended pipe under B = 0.5T–3.0T, Re = 2,000–200,000 and Ha = 106–640 were measured. • MHD pressure gradient of PbLi flow in the double-bended pipe showed a linear relationship to the product of mean velocity and B². • Effective load resistance K_p of PbLi MHD flow in the double-bended pipe was 25% larger than the theoretical value. • All the MHD friction loss coefficients f^MHD were well correlated with the interaction parameters (N = Ha²⁄Re) in the range of 0.1 - Abstract: The design of liquid metal cooling system for the liquid blanket concepts in magnetic fusion reactor requires the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) friction loss coefficients for various pipes including pipes and bents to estimate the pressure drop of the whole blanket. The aim of this study is to reveal the MHD pressure drop of PbLi flow in a double-bended pipe. The experiments were conducted in the Oroshhi-2 loop having a super conducting magnet of 3T at NIFS in Japan. In this paper, the MHD pressure drops of the pipe under the magnetic field of 0.5T–3.0T, the ranges of Reynolds number (Re) of 2000–200,000 and Hartmann number (Ha) of 106–640 at the upstream, double-bended and downstream regions were measured. As the results, all the MHD friction loss coefficients in three regions were well correlated with the interaction parameter (Na = Ha²/Re) in the range of 0.1 < N < 100. Finally, the correlation equations of MHD friction loss coefficient against the interaction parameters at the upstream, double-bended and downstream regions of the pipe were obtained. Moreover, it was briefly discussed on the implementation to the liquid metal cooling system design for fusion reactor.